check out this absolutely terrifying ancient babylonian lullaby

Ursula Le Guin's 1999 letter to Michael Powell, the owner of Powell's Books in Portland. Powell's workers unionized in 2000 and have faced some union-busting measures since, but were the first contract in ILWU Local 5.

Dancing frogs have become a symbol of resistance in the USA. Interestingly, over a decade ago David Graeber wrote a piece on the power of such symbols in protest movements. The piece is called - On the Phenomenology of Giant Puppets. Here is an extract.

For the Mid-Autumn Festival, I translated the 17th century failson, epicure, and memoirist Zhang Dai's account of the annual Mid-Autumn singing competition on Tiger Hill in Suzhou. www.burninghou.se/p/mid-autumn...

Are you tired of greasy pots and pans? Stubborn kitchen stains? Messy sponges and sprays? Me too. I wish the sun would devour the earth.

oh fuck yes now we are cooking

lol

Literally always ruin my day with a Terrible Fact ™️.

The American cities Trump has vowed to invade one by one produce 90% of this country's GDP. We must withhold these funds, and our infrastructure, from the United States Government, until these invasions stop If you only read one thing I've ever written, please make it this

If I think I’m going to really love a book it can be hard to even start it. I’ve carted this copy around for years. This year, for many reasons, felt like it was time. It did not disappoint. This book was incredible.

Lish is the best.

Holy shit. Those kids chased that Nazi DOWN. Watching him look back in fear at the mass of people chasing him is even more satisfying than watching him get cuffed and dragged off to jeers.

I mean yes this is funny, but the fact that these unconstitutional stormtroopers are so directionless that they literally stand around waiting for random nonwhite delivery guys to bike past them is just pathetic. No mandate, no mission, no clue. Just racism.

Artwork from an Ottoman book depicting a tooth infection. Apparently the pain comes either from demons or a guy mansplaining something. This seems fair

Thinking about pushing some nice soothingly boring books. Isn’t the world just a little too frenzied? Maybe you need a nice black and white photo book of Manhole Covers. Sedate. Soporific. No lurid jarring colors or too much motion. No terrible unpredictable surprises. Just still grey quiet.

Almost Home - this month’s riso print to ring in the fall. Not sure how to describe it, but this time of year always feels like I’m almost “home” so I wanted to come up with something that touches on that feeling a little

Literary Chinese for a foggy morning, courtesy of Xin Qiji 辛棄疾 (1140-1207): 何人半夜推山去？ 四面浮雲猜是汝。 Someone came in the night and stole our mountain away. Drifting clouds surround me. (Was it you?)

It is so important for our fandom great grands, the trek fanzine mimeographers and the OG Spirk shippers, to be in present day fandoms with us. Lois Bujold has read and watched more versions of MDZS than I have and more manga for sure, and I think that's so rad.

Originally published by Drum & Spear, the publishing arm of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Enemy of the Sun: Poetry of Palestinian Resistance links twelve Palestinian poets working in a poetics of refusal and of hope. Available now wherever fine books are sold.

dunno who needs to see this but medieval necromancy journal

Just sold a book out of a van at a beer festival, am delighted at the back-alley-dealing flavor my business is taking

Tlingit artist Nicholas Galanin, “Architecture of return, escape (The British Museum)”, a deerskin map a floor plan of the British Museum and possible escape routes for various Indigenous cultural belongings held there.

Heads up for spooky season: custom spooky watercolors

#AltText for image: black and white photo of Leslie Feinberg, who is white with close-cropped hair. Ze is wearing a dark shirt, light tie (pulled down a little), and an analogue wristwatch with a large face, and ze is templing hir fingers. STONE BUTCH BLUES is available as a free PDF, read it:

I love this artist’s work and I love this gallery; should be a fantastic show

It's Minnesota State Fair time! It's time for Minnesotan folk art! Here, for example, is Saturn Devouring His Corn, in the seed art category!

I loved @vermontgmg.bsky.social's latest piece so much that I asked if I could republish it on The Handbasket and he so generously said yes. If you haven't read it yet, please do. It's essential:

Everything is terrible, but a visit in a garden with chosen family does the heart good

this iconic advertising copywriter named Kathy Hepinstall Parks died over the weekend and I wanted to share something from her website I thought Bluesky would like

Doing some real satisfying cataloging this week

Endless horrors

RIP Red Reddick. Red was a Seattle bookselling legend—a lovable grump who was boundlessly passionate about sharing great literature with good people.

If I have to explain to you why it's a bad idea to use a machine that makes shit up 15-80% of the time AND destroys the environment AND contributes to rising fascism and genocide AND puts brilliant skillful creatives out of work by stealing their work, then we're already speaking different languages

Nisi Shawl is one of my favorite writers, a queer elder & a BIPOC icon. I hate that the state of publishing is such that the book of their dreams would struggle to find a home, but I love that we as a community can come together to make it happen!! Give/boost as you're able? 🙏 gofund.me/3a52097a

Ultimately SINGLES isn’t so much about lonely disaffected 20 somethings, as it is about a city unwilling to help their horny citizens meet each other on public transit by investing in infrastructure.

Do you have a dive bar, gay bar, freaky yoga studio, burlesque establishment, or otherwise appropriate venue for these? Wanna put some there for me? Text your name, address, and venue to the OG Squid Facts Hotline 9-RUNG-SQUID, & I'll mail 'em to you. I'll delete this when I hit my mailing limit.

You are seen, and I can relate. #spoonie #chronicpain #chronicillness

Tanith Lee is criminally underrated.

I’m happy to report that, in the midst of all the general Ruin, my New Year’s resolution to eat as many dumplings in Seattle as possible is going GREAT. My most successful resolution ever.

I just really love my neighborhood

Just got an email from Swedish saying my ms specialist is no longer with them as of today. I’m floored and kind of heartbroken; my specialist is amazing. Am not sure what to do.

Sharing @ajaxbell.bsky.social ‘s excellent review of My Journey to You. I hesitate to say I enjoyed it, since the relentless melancholy was emotionally exhausting, but I thought it was very well done - and incredibly gorgeous.

I don’t know where this even came from. I’ve found plenty of bad old cookbooks but this is truly an unending parade of horrors. Nothing I’ve flipped to seems edible. So much cottage cheese. So many prunes. So much gelatin. Why, churchwomen? Why.

Highly recommend this well-done short with an incredibly badass female lead - a steely, unbendable warrior fixed on vengeance. Very enjoyable.

Ugh I have a huge collection of Sandman graphic novels to catalog. Maybe someone wants to own these without giving Gaiman any more money. But should I say that in the description? Dilemmas.

Fanny Howe (1940-2025)

Cryptic yet thoughtful care packages from booksellers: that giant online villain with its hilariously inept algorithm could never hope to match this service. Support your local indies

Our neighbor had ducklings in their planter a couple weeks ago. 100/10, highly recommend.

Doing some very topical reading while I’m resting. Very slow reading with a very muddy brain. Amazing how relevant this feels: denial, willful ignorance, fudged statistics, blind superstition- all too recognizable today.

That Covid wave is real and there’s no “summer flu”. Ask me how I know. Mask up, folks!